N O B U Y O S H I
A R A K I
N O B U Y O S H I
A R A K I
NOBUYOSHI ARAKI
KAORI This book is a diary of an unusual relationship, and a fable of an
Araki, though, has never disdained strong colour. In many images, Kaori wear's a traditional kimono, partly open to reveal her pale skin in contrast with the boldly patterned fabric. The stylisation echoes the graphic art of erotic 19th century Japanese wood-block prints. At the
erotic adventure. Although the photographer/artist is always Nobuyoshi
same time, Araki nods to the high brow with the low brow. The elabo-
Araki, and while the model and Muse a young woman called Kaori from
rate, symbolic poses of Kabuki theatre and Noh drama, clash with the
Tokyo, the story is not as simple as that. There is no beginning t o speak
trash culture of cheap sex and Godzilla. With a knowing glance, Kaori
of, nor is it your usual narrative, complete with a happy ending. Instead
clasps plastic dinosaurs in her hands. Reclining provocatively on a
we are presented with a multi-faceted series of portraits of Araki's
bed, the toy monster peeks into the folds in her kimono.
harem of one. In Araki's images, Kaori appears in a variety of poses. Effortlessly,
Nor is there a consistent mood in Araki's portraits. Kaori sits pertly
she displays an astonishing range of emotions - brashly self-confident
on a boudoir chair. Kaori the temptress in a sheer negligee. Kaori
and strong, baffled, insecure and mysterious. We begin to wonder
toussled and unkempt. Kaori smeared with coloured liquids, dripping
whether Kaori is merely a willing subject? Is Araki really just the
between her breasts and into a bathtub. Kaori imitating an exotic bird,
director and the voyeur? The guises change, and then change again.
a prisoner in a filagree cage. Kaori as an anonymous young woman
The roles are continually reversed. Who is really in control?
standing in an empty Tokyo laneway. Kaori flung to the floor like a
Since he first met Kaori in 2001, Araki has photographed her endlessly, taking thousands of pictures of her. All his innovations and
corpse. In some images, Araki's camera enters the shot. Even in the most intimate portrait, the artist's presence cannot be ignored.
inspirations, both classical and controversial, would appear to have come together under the influence of an ideal muse.
"Araki's fundamental idea is that photography is an 'I-Novel'," writes
The photographs are printed both in stark black-and-white and in lush
Gijs van Tuyl in Tokyo Nouvelle, the 1995 publication commemorating
colour. More recently, Araki has been adding hand-painted elements to
Araki's solo exhibition at Germany's Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg.
some of these portraits. The effect is a Kaori captured by a rainbow.
"In Japanese literature - but in European literature too, from Defoe's
In his notorious bondage photographs, Araki shows women bound
Robinson Crusoe to Nabokov's Lolita - the narrator tells his story in the
by tight ropes, trussed-up and helpless, often dangling precariously
first person, partly to lend verisimilitude to the fiction by making it seem
above the floor. "It's not a punishment. It's an expression of affection,"
as though everything is experienced in the 'I', and by describing
says Araki. "In Japan, it's called kinbaku and it's not the same thing as
the outside world from the inside.
the Western notion of bondage. For me, when the girl is tied up, she
Araki the man is likewise a phenomenom. The intensity of his
gets more sexy, more beautiful". His hand-painted photographs of Kaori
life and work attest to a vitality so fierce that one is involuntarily
Born in 1940 in Tokyo, Araki graduated from Chiba University at the
His work stands as a significiant series of single moments that are a
age of 24, having majored in photography and cinema. He studied Italian
silent testimony to private worlds traditionally secreted away from
neo-realism and the French new wave, the effects of which can still be
public gaze. When placed in the context of Araki's entire body of
seen in those photographs where the model appears to be on the verge
work, it illustrates most vividly the vicarious line between cultural
of some new discovery, lost in an unexplained emotion. While working as
acceptability and cultural reality."
a photographer at the Japanese advertising agency, Dentsu Inc, he
Sometimes he played along with the trials of censorship and
began to use the company's equipment to photograph female employes.
his burgeoning reputation as "the hair photographer" by scratching his
His commercial work was dedicated to cool, precise shots of refrigerators
negatives before printing them, or applying black paint directly to his
and kitchen appliances in the studio, while his private work began
imagery, covering the vaginas of his models. He exaggerated the
focusing on capturing nude models poised in the shadows of mystery.
perceived shame of pubic hair, and such devices can be seen as the
He practised with new techniques, circulating his one-off photographs as
fore-runners of his painted photographs of Kaori from 2003-2004.
xeroed copies, and by the time he met his his future wife Aoki Yoko in 1968, he had already received the Taiyo Prize for his film Satchin And His Brother Mabo. In 1970, a controversial exhibition which featured many images of
Araki and his camera became a regular sight in Tokyo's red-light district. He ventured into brothels, karaoke bars and sex shops, photographing prostitutes at work, but always with their full consent.
female genitalia signalled the direction that Araki's work would then take.
His personal morality has sorely tried some critics, but few
Yoko was to become his favourite model in the 1970s and 1980s, but at
photographers have worked so succinctly with the linked themes
the same time, he began to document the emerging Tokyo sex industry.
of hedonism and alienation.
While most of his models were young women, including amateur
As well as portraits, Araki has also done urban landscapes and empty
sex workers kitted out in the kittenish costumes of giggling schoolgirls
street scenes providing a metaphor for the loneliness of life in a
displaying a sort of peek-a-boo naughtiness, he also trained his camera on
metropolis. His black-and-white series titled Sentimental Journey records
older models and "fallen women". He maintained his policy of all-inclusive-
his wife Yoko's death from cancer in 1990, which was followed by a
ness, rather than worshipping perfection and desire. Now and then, clients
period in which Araki photographed striking, sparse vistas of the sky.
enter the frame, or the photographer himself partly intrudes on the action.
In these images, the artist's sense of grief and loss is palpable.
His obvious affection for his models, however, has never been in doubt. "The most striking aspect of Araki's work during this time was the
His large scale Painting Flower series is devoted to close-ups of lilies,
implicit earthy humour of his subjects," writes Wendy Cavenett in Black
orchids and other waxy flowers which he has first daubed in glowing paint.
+White magazine in 1999. "These pictures were less symbolic
It is as though Araki has decided to improve on nature, creating
but more complex, shocking yet engrossing, sometimes funny and
monumental still-lifes which comment on Japan's ambivalent attitude
These unstaged snapshot portraits powerfully link the intense colours
rable and free-spirited. Bold calligraphy turns her into a brazen calendar
and instant gratification of Polaroid photography, to the rapid
girl. There is the sensation of both suspense and suspension of belief.
consumerism of sex by-the-hour. With a career that now spans more than three decades, Araki's output
The paint itself becomes physical. It binds her to the paper, like the bondage ropes used in Araki's earlier photography. Simultaneously,
is vast. His energy and his obsessions are legendary. With almost 300
the paint functions as a material which both cancels and accentuates.
books to his name, Araki's work has also been exhibited in prestigious
These are not the carefully hand-painted portraits of Pierre et Gilles
solo shows at the Fondation Cartier pour l'Art Contemporain in Paris, the
or Jan Saudek. Araki's use of paint is not about cautious, meticulous
Ikon Gallery in Birmingham, Centre National de la Photographie in Paris,
beautification It is about rough, expressive emotion. His gestures
Stedelijk Museum voor Aktuele Kunst in Gent, Hara Museum of
are the wild, raw stuff of Arnulf Rainer and Gunter Brus, closer
Contemporary Art in Tokyo, the Photographers Gallery in London,
to German expressionism than the high-style violence of Manga comics.
Deichtorhallen in Hamburg, the Taipei
In any case, splashes of red and pink
Museum in Taiwan and the Frans
inevitably conjure up the instant impres-
Halsmuseum in Haarlem.
sion of blood. In other painted portraits,
This book is being published on the
especially those in which Araki has inclu-
occasion of Araki's third solo show at
ded abstract, bursting blossoms, he has
Reflex Gallery in Amsterdam. Araki first
transferred a sunny, tropical disposition
began to photograph Kaori at about
to the playful pictures of Kaori rollicking
the same time that he established
and rolling on sheets. Against a yellow
his
background, she appears to be swim-
relationship
with
the
gallery.
Accordingly, the Amsterdam exhibition
ming on sand, amid details painted using
is dedicated solely to Araki's portraits
Gauguin's coral pallette. She looks back
of his current muse, his chameleon of
at the viewer with bedroom eyes. As ever,
expressive beauty. Developing from his photographs of painted flowers, Araki's most recent photographs of Kaori are a further departure from the traditional
there is the implication of an intimate rapport between the model and photographer. Most photographers attempt to mask this unspoken relationship, but Araki exaggerates it with relish.
world of portraiture. With broad brush strokes, he applies waves of bright
In an age of digital manipulation, Araki instead uses an extremely
colour to his black and white prints. Swirls of paint seem to "push" Kaori
manual, hands-on technique to create a new celebration of feminine beauty.
aside. The colours wrap sensually around her contours, like a blanket.
Kaori becomes a buoyant symbol of joy, hope and freedom. Neither the
Her silhouette emerges from lush fields. Her poses are relaxed and com-
photographer nor his muse live under the pewter skies of tragedy and
for-table, or alternatively, she is shown with awkardly splayed limbs. Shot
suffering. Every moment derves our attention, no scene is without beauty
A very special thanks to: Nobuyoshi Araki, Kaori, Yoshiko Isshiki, Natsuko Odate, Ria and Lex Daniels, Famous Amsterdam, Freya Venneman, Jonathan Turner, Jason Fried, Travis Klose, Masa Sakamaki. Design and Layout: Alex Daniels Jr. 1500 copies Print: Meco Offset Zwaag.
